Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

It is easy to dismiss advertising as simply the background chatter of modern life, often annoying, sometimes hilarious, and ultimately meaningless. But Kerri P. Steinberg argues that a careful study of the history of advertising can reveal a wealth of insight into a culture. Inand#160;Jewish Mad Men, Steinberg looks specifically at how advertising helped shape the evolution of American Jewish life and culture over the past one hundred years. and#160;

Drawing on case studies of famous advertising campaignsandmdash;from Levyandrsquo;s Rye Bread (andldquo;You donandrsquo;t have to be Jewish to love Levyandrsquo;sandrdquo;) to Hebrew National hot dogs (andldquo;We answer to a higher authorityandrdquo;)andmdash;Steinberg examines advertisements from the late nineteenth-century in New York, the center of advertising in the United States, to trace changes in Jewish life there and across the entire country. She looks at ads aimed at the immigrant population, at suburbanites in midcentury, and at hipster and post-denominational Jews today.and#160;

In addition to discussing campaigns for everything from Manischewitz wine to matzoh,and#160;Jewish Mad Menand#160;also portrays the legendary Jewish figures in advertisingandmdash;like Albert Lasker and Bill Bernbachandmdash;and lesser known andldquo;Mad Menandrdquo; like Joseph Jacobs, whose pioneering agency created the brilliantly successful Maxwell House Coffee Haggadah. Throughout, Steinberg uses the lens of advertising to illuminate the Jewish trajectory from outsider to insider, and the related arc of immigration, acculturation, upward mobility, and suburbanization.

Anchored in the illustrations, photographs, jingles, and taglines of advertising,and#160;Jewish Mad Menand#160;features a dozen color advertisements and many black-and-white images. Lively and insightful, this book offers a unique look at both advertising and Jewish life in the United States.

Review

andquot;You don't have to be Jewish to appreciate this richly detailedand#160;account of the marketing and advertising of Jewish life. Steinbergand#160;documents how religious, cultural, and communal concerns all takeand#160;shape in conversation with the commercial marketplace.andquot;

Review

andquot;Both provocative and entertaining, Jewish Mad Men is an insightful look into advertising and American Jewish life.andquot;

Review

andquot;A major contribution to the literature on graphic novels. Highly Recommended.andquot;

Review

andquot;The People of the Bookandmdash;the epithet is no longer sufficient. More appropriate: The People of the Book and the Image. Samantha Baskind and Ranen Omer-Sherman, leading a cadre of exegetes, explain what makes the combination Jewish.andquot;

Review

andquot;Will Eisner coined the term 'Graphic Novel' in 1976 for A Contract with God, his account of the Jewish Diaspora experience. It has since become the label for complex illustrated textsandmdash;some fiction, somenon-fiction; most a striking mix of both. The growth of the 'GraphicNovel' also tracks with the rise of a post-modern, global Jewish culturein the later 20th century. The Jewish Graphic Novel is thus both a history of the genre as well as a history of its particular place in the growing, self-conscious world of contemporary Jewish self-representation. A brilliant and original book!andquot;

Review

andquot;A lively, interdisciplinary collection of essays that addresses critically acclaimed works in this subgenre of Jewish literary and artistic culture. This comprehensive volume is a compelling representation of a major postmodern ethnic and artistic achievement.andquot;

Review

andquot;Those interested in current Jewish literary culture will find it absorbing, as will anyone interested in how the graphic novel contributes to our understanding of Jewish identity.andquot;

Review

andquot;Few attempts have been made to publish an anthology of academic essays on Jewish graphic novels. The Jewish Graphic Novel is a wonderful attempt to fill this void. The collection brings together four essays on specific books, five essays comparing pairs of graphic narratives, two overviews, two cartoonist interviews, an in-depth look at a Jewish comic book character, and an illustrated essay about Jewish biographical comix. Highly recommended for public, academic, and high school libraries, particularly those that already have significant Judaica graphic novel collections.andquot;

Review

andquot;The graphic novel is a vital and emerging genre, and this is the onlybook that focuses on its relation to Jewish culture, literature, and history. A highly readable and informative collection that will be of great interest to readers across a wide range of disciplines.andquot;

Review

andquot;The Jewish Graphic Novel is a pivotal work of sequential art scholarship: the 16 essays in this volume provide an excellent introduction to an understanding of Jewish experience and culture through the lens of comics. Baskind and Omer-Sherman have produced an original collection of articles that provide new insights into the history and culture of the graphic novel, its writers, and artists.andquot;

Review

andquot;Those who find themselves involved with graphic genres will find this book a welcome resource. It is a strong collection.andquot;

Review

andquot;Steinberg explains in her informative Jewish Mad Men, an anti-Semitic climate existed in the advertising business even into the early 1960s. Jewish and#39;Mad Menand#39; wrestled their way into mainstream firms, too, and became influential in imagining and promoting the American Dream and the Jewish American version. Although there was plenty of anti-Semitism in the so-called and#39;white shoeand#39; ad world, this book is about the complexity of being Jewish and American in a field whose ultimate goal is to influence Americansandrsquo; daily behavior. Steinberg effectively shows that when Jews became a consumer market, the advertising business realized it had to cater to them, forcing the creative demographic to change as well. Todayandrsquo;s Madison Avenue is a mixed marriage, so that national ads do not focus on too many ethnic or religious distinctions. While thatandrsquo;s great, it has rendered the brilliant, ethnically rooted ads, like Levyandrsquo;s, harder if not impossible to find.andquot;

Review

Arguing that a study of the business of advertising can reveal insights into a culture, Steinberg (art history, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles) examines advertising that documents Jewish concerns, trends, and attitudes. and#160;In the first chapter, she briefly discusses the arrival of Jews in the American colonies before she looks at Abraham Cahanand#39;s Forward, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wiseand#39;s The Israelite, and the Band#39;nai Band#39;rith Messenger, among other papers aimed at Jews. and#160;In her analysis, the author focuses on editorial and advertising content, revealing the anxieties Jews experienced in the late 1800s and early 1900s because of anti-Semitism. and#160;In the second chapter, she discusses Joseph Jacobs and his advertising, which remixed jingles and headlines within a Jewish context for companies such as Kraft and General Foods. and#160;As she writes, andquot;Ethnic marketing encouraged American Jews to retain their Jewish distinctions.andquot; and#160;The third chapter examines the Manischewitz and Maxwell House brands, which established themselves as pillars of American Jewish culture. and#160;In the fourth chapter, Steinberg looks at Albert Lasker and Bill Bernbach, two icons in American advertising. and#160;In the final chapter, she focuses on JDating in the digital age. and#160;This book should appeal to readers interested in learning about advertising and Jewish life in the US.

Synopsis

Attractively illustrated and insightfully written, Jewish Mad Men looks at how advertising helped shape the evolution of American Jewish life and culture over the past one hundred years. and#160;Drawing on case studies of famous ad campaignsandmdash;from Levyandrsquo;s Rye Bread to Hebrew National hot dogsandmdash;Kerri P. Steinberg uses the lens of advertising to illuminate the Jewish trajectory from outsider to insider, and the related arc of immigration, acculturation, upward mobility, and suburbanization.

Synopsis

In the 1970s and 1980s Jewish cartoonists such as Will Eisner were some of the first artists to use the graphic novel as a way to explore their ethnicity. Although similar to their pop culture counterpart, the comic book, graphic novels presented weightier subject matter in more expensive packaging, which appealed to an adult audience and gained them credibility as a genre.

The Jewish Graphic Novel is a lively, interdisciplinary collection of essays that addresses critically acclaimed works in this subgenre of Jewish literary and artistic culture. Featuring insightful discussions of notable figures in the industryandugrave;such as Will Eisner, Art Spiegelman, and Joann Sfarandugrave;the essays focus on the how graphic novels are increasingly being used in Holocaust memoir and fiction, and to portray Jewish identity in America and abroad

Featuring more than 85 illustrations, this collection is a compelling representation of a major postmodern ethnic and artistic achievement.

About the Author

KERRI P. STEINBERG is an associate professor of art history at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; A Portrait of American Jewish Life

2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Spaces and Places of Jewish Advertising: Joseph Jacobs and Market Segmentation

3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Manischewitz and Maxwell House: The MandM of Jewish Advertising

4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; You Say You Want a Revolution: The Mainstreaming of Jewish Identity in American Advertising

5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Matchmaker, Matchmaker: JDating in the Digital Age